Just Sleeping
by Madame Vodka
Summary: Trapped beneath the wreckage of a Preventors office, Quatre is struggling to breathe. In the aftermath of the explosion will Duo be able retain his sanity? is he sleeping? is he dead? *Light shonen ai, 4 X ?*
1. Chapter 1

Quatre couldn't breathe and he was petrified.

There was agony, crushing prolonging agony, filtering through every vein in his body, as his broken body struggled to take just one more breath.

He couldn't even move, he was crushed under tons of brick. Brick, blood and bodies of the other Preventors who worked with him, laughed with him, his comrades. But Quatre wasn't thinking of them right now, which was unusual for him, he wasn't thinking of his family, he wasn't thinking of his brief yet auspicious affair which was only promising to get better, he wasn't even thinking of lunch because Quatre couldn't think at all. He was only faintly aware of the blood streaming down his face, washing over pale dusty skin with thick red rivets but it didn't seem to matter much to him.

What mattered was being able to breathe.

In, out, in, out, in, in, in

and out...

Above him was chaos, a crushed building of screams and pandemonium, while Preventors swarmed with the emergency crew, trying to rescue their companions, trying to dig into the building to unearth their friends from the unexpected tomb, yelling orders that no one was really paying attention to, each trying to find a certain person they just knew were missing, Susan, Mikey, Ahmed, Ms Lee, that guy; people they all knew were missing, digging hunting in sheer desperation trying to find a limp outreaching hand.

So far, 156 had already been found in the rubble after an hour of frantic searching, at least 65 of the people had already been confirmed as dead, and the search continued with a sense of hopeless and dread as the roads and skies were blocked with helicopters and ambulances frantically dashing back and forth amidst the thick black smoke. Reporters and family seethed, waiting, interviewing and outright furious at being held back by a team of police.

Pure chaos.

John was not aware Quatre was missing, which is a pity because John could of told his would be rescuers, that before the explosion he had sent Quatre down to the basement for certain files they needed as proof. No-one was supposed to know what John and Quatre had been assigned to work on and they kept their movements secret, at this time not even friends could be trusted. John wasn't thinking of his wife or his kids, he wasn't thinking of the assignment anymore, he wasn't angry any more, the main reason why John was so calm, why he was not aware Quatre was missing was mostly because John was dead.

The chaos continued.

Quatre was slipping, although his body was held firmly in place his mind was slipping, with each drip of blood he slipped even closer. His once magnificent brain was dying, shutting down but Quatre wasn't even aware of this, his eyes were firmly shut and he was locked in an embrace of unconsciousness. Which was probably for the best, it could be hours before someone even knew he was missing, and clichéd as it is, Quatre didn't have hours, he barely even had minutes.

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_Sorry this first chapter is so short but a girl has to have some suspense :P, don't worry this isn't going to be an OOC story, just randomly naming people to work with the preventors._

_Auspicious - promising success (the thesaurus came up with it not me.)_


	2. Chapter 2

second chapter

_They found most of him._

_A hand, two legs and a torso._

_A few more minutes of digging and they found a head._

_Almost every single one of the rescuers required therapy after today, unable to get the images out of their head, one constantly asked his disinterested therapist, "where did the other hand go? And the eye? Oh god what happened to the eye?"_

_Second Officer Alex Smith would certainly not be resting in peace._

Practically everybody wanted Une's attention, wanting to know who was in that building, what had happened, what work was being doing in this building, did she have a list of the confirmed dead? For the families you understand, they must know Miss Une, what was her next course of action? Why couldn't the families be allowed to help? They were surrounding her, chanting their questions and demanding instant satisfactory answers. Une just wanted to scream at them to go away. In the back of her mind a warning signal was blazing, as she remembered one particular research job she had assigned...

_John was still dead, had he been alive, he would have been furious._

Heero Yuy surveyed the chaos with a slight expression of displeasure. A full search and rescue had finally been organised, with most on the family onlookers shooed to await news in the hospitals, his partner Duo Maxwell had taken great pleasure in removing the reporters off the Preventors "property" and confiscating certain photographic equipment, not that would cease this … incident from being shown on the news but Duo did like to frustrate those who deeply annoyed him.

Heero was annoyed with himself, for panicking, for showing emotions, he was even more annoyed with the fact he was worried. He may not of liked every Preventor who worked with them, in fact he disliked most of them and dismissed them with menacing glares but he was still worried about the injured, the buried.

And the other pilots.

His ….. friends?

Neither he or Duo was near the explosion, conveniently they were more than a mile away when there was a tremor, they heard the explosion and turned the car around, mission forgotten. He knew Wufei wasn't there, no doubt seeing the carnage for his self at the hospital where he had been laid up for breaking an ankle. But Trowa and Quatre? He knew both of them were working today, unusually on separate assignments. Duo had tried calling both of them repeatly but the lines were just jammed, everybody was trying to call somebody, even the rescuers were being startled by an occasional burst of a happy sounding tune, it motivated them to dug hard, a guiding signal.

There were just too many people around, too many masses of faces and there they stood, crowd control, unable to do anything but scare idealistic reporters away with nothing more than an menacing look.

The search and rescue kept digging.

_Elizabeth Lione was tired, mentally physically exhausted, she wanted to stop, rest for a little while, her fingers felt burnt and bruised under the thick gloves, she was hot, sweaty and practically choking on smoke, she wanted to stop but a little voice inside her drove her on, wanting to save as many as possible. Elizabeth was upset, she had unearthed several people now and three of them looked just so peaceful, barely a scratch on them, just a little dusty but they were ok, they were going to be fine! until she realised that none of them were even breathing. Elizabeth wanted to cry, but she didn't had time, crying would have to wait til late, until she was alone and only her cat could see._

_She would have nightmares that featured heavily on bloodied hands reaching from the earth and tugging her down, begging her to help._

_But she dug on._

Crowd control gave Heero time to think, most people now knew that getting past that young man just was not going to happen so he had time to analyse and to think, trying to block out the feelings of hopelessness and worry.

The building at full occupancy could hold five hundred people, but because it was one of the older buildings, it rarely reached full occupancy, it wasn't even the main building for the Preventors to use, it was the furthest away from the car park and apart from some minor window losses, none of the other buildings had been even remotely damaged. It seemed an unusual choice, should this proof to be the work of an enemy, for someone to target but the building as far as Heero was aware did not contain any combustible materials; something is not right, something definitely was not right. Well Duh! a secondary thought replied, what was your first clue there Sherlock?

Heero was definitely not happy.

_Octave had seen that nice Quatre Winner, briefly before the explosion. He was possibly the last man to see Mr Winner, although it wasn't until much later when he was being questioned that he remembered seeing him past him on the stairs with barely a faint smile, which was unusual for Mr Winner, usually they would say hello and exchange pleasantries. He had heard the rumours going around about Mr Winner of course but chose to ignore them as he considered Mr Winner one of nicest people in the Preventors to work with. Barely anyone spoke to the old cleaner any more let alone offer him a warm smile but Octave decided that Mr Winner must of have a lot on his mind to act so out of character and held no grudges. At the moment Octave was just happy to be alive, whilst trapped under the rumble he had sworn to himself to cash in his pension, to take all his savings and go, he had always wanted to go see the colonies, he had always wanted to travel and he realised he didn't have as much time as he thought, you are not invincible just because you have survived several wars he told himself, as soon as that leg, that hip heals I am going._

_And eventually he did go, and after a while that nice Mr Winner and the Preventors became just a memory._

Wufei felt overwhelmingly frustrated, he could not do ANYTHING! He was forced to lie on a hospital bed, watching the news being repeated again and again, scanning the crowd in hopes of seeing anyone of his …. team? Friends? Not even Une had appeared on t.v to make announcements or interviews. He thought he had seen the baka's braid at one point but he couldn't be certain, no sign of Barton, no sign of Noin, no sign of Po, no sign of Winner, no sign of Yuy not that he cared really, honestly he just wanted to know. . . maybe he cared a little and convenience himself that he was merely angry that they had died unjustifiable deaths. If they had died, which they wouldn't of done of course, they weren't that stupid, well maybe Maxwell but...

* * *

Ah this is an unusual style for me to be writing in, and would like to know what you think, wanted to show all areas of the explosion, it will get more character centric as the story progresses.

Any suggestions on a better summary would be great.


	3. Chapter 3

_Uh oh, I can't find this story on my computer. I have no idea what I was going to write next, I can only vaguely remember the plot. Am working two jobs which means I have very little time and I am meant to be writing my first novel (woo). Sooo the outlook for this fanfic is looking a little bleak. It would be better if I wasn't addicted to Lolcats._

_I had, to be honest, forgotten bout this fic. So if you like this chapter, credit semi goes to Here Forever (also my last reviewer of 2010) woo. Hope you are not disappointed with the chapter and continue to enjoy the story (to all my reviewers, woo Happy New Year)_

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Chapter Three.

It would appear that Heero was just standing around, doing well little. He didn't stand out too much as most of other Preventers were also just standing around, doing very little except stare up helplessly at the burning building. There was little they could do, if they weren't medically trained. Of they were just admin staff or new recruits then they didn't even know what they could do. They had all been told to stand at in the safety zones, no other orders had been given as of yet. They just stood, watching the chaos unable to do anything, some praying that they would not be asked to do anything.  
Heero was no better, he was trained to create the chaos not contain it or remove it. He was a senior member of staff so had some value at this scene but little. He was just stuck doing the task assigned to him, which was to keep all those not needed at the scene, away from the scene, until better orders came along.

But he was doing something. He was compiling a mental list. Going through his memory to note every thing person or activity that went on in that building. It had been targeted for a reason. There had to be something in that building that someone wanted destroying... unless... unless this was a distraction tactic. Either someone was in one of the other buildings, getting exactly what they wanted or they were planning a second wave of bombs. The other buildings had been evacuated yes, but no one had left, they were still standing around outside. Had he been the one rigging up the explosives, with the aim to cause the most damage to the work force then he would have rigged a series of bombs outside, in the car park or on the grass where almost all of the remaining Preventers were standing. No, that was just stupid. The first bomb had gone off hours ago, there wouldn't be a second wave now, there was too many uncontrollable variables, too many risks. A bomber couldn't count on things working out to how they were meant to go. If something else was to happen, then it should of happened by now. If something was going to be stolen from one of the other buildings then it would have been stolen earlier, during the panic. But that would be ok, he could trace that. That wasn't an issue.

What was an issue is that he didn't know where the hell the others were. No, he wasn't going to think about that right. They would turn up sooner or later. They had enough training, enough brains. They would turn up sooner or later.

Who was inside that building or what had been inside the building would be the key. The reason for this. Heero was itching to ask Une for a full list of authorised personnel, who was doing what inside that building but had enough sense to know that now was not the time to ask.

Wait… Hadn't Trowa said that, Heero tried to remember the exact wording Trowa had put earlier. Trowa should be coming to this building later, because... Duo shouted across to Heero, distracting him for a moment. Heero turned to move towards his partner then stopped. His eyes widening whilst Duo stared at him. Trowa had said he was coming to this building to meet Quatre.

* * *

_Wufei had a perfect view. _

_ From his own hospital bed, where he lay, pinned down by a broken ankle (of all the weakest of injuries!). From where he lay (like a girl! Dammit) he could see the A & E become slowly crowded by his colleagues. He could see the walking wounded with glimmering red cuts fluttering down foreheads, dribbling down arms and legs. The hospital's usual bubble of noise was intensified by the incoming troops. The whirl wind of emotions just reminded Wufei of Quatre and Wufei did not want to think of Quatre right now, or any of his other (dammit)_

_ It was strange to Wufei just to see this side of conflict (war) He and the other pilots rarely saw this side of world, they saw the guns, the hospital saw the wounded. They fired, the doctors healed. How many hospitals became like this when he had detonated … (This hospital was making him sentimental.) He had been too busy to even learn the names of some of these people and now (feelings and names don't belong in wars.) But they weren't even meant to be fighting right now. His ankle had been broken in a training exercise by a foolish (Idiotic, stupid, no-good) recruit. _

_ Wufei was suddenly feeling very old. The mayhem meant that the nurses had not yet made the medical rounds, pain was beginning to shoot into little fiery stars around his head. He was becoming emotional (No, he wasn't) and reflective. Wufei slowly turned back to the tv, trying to distract himself once again from the forbidden (unwanted, non-existent) thoughts and feelings by looking once again for the other pilots._

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_

Trowa was alive and well. He had gone on his lunch break a good half hour before the bomb had detonated. Unusually for him, he had gone offsite for the hour. He needed to get away from the offices for a while. There was some stuff he needed to think about. Trowa wasn't used to this. Actually having to really think about... usually it was do or die but now he had a choice. Well it wasn't so much as a choice, that had already been made. It was where do you go from here? Who makes the next move? Should there be a next move. It wasn't a mistake though he was sure of that but still...

Trowa had just been served his lunch, a black coffee, one sugar, a bowl of salad and something that looked vaguely like soup when the first tremors shook through the small cafe. There was a milisecond of silence before he heard the explosion. He was the first to his feet and out the door as the shattered glass was still trickling onto the floor. No one that day even cared that he had left his food uneaten and unpaid for as they began the slow zombie migration towards the burning shards where one of the Preventers building had once stood. The choices he was making in his mind suddenly just became clear, there was only one way he could go now.

* * *

_Elizabeth Lione was slowly unearthing a young man. His preventers uniform was stained dark with dust and blood. She had already dismissed him as dead. They were all dead now, she was only digging out the dead. These were the people closest to the explosion, none of them had a chance. She lifted some more of the bricks away from the man's bloodstained face. His skin seemed almost completely stained with the dirty red fluid. She had already called over for another bag when the man gave out the weakest of splutters. She stared at him, frozen in horror as one of the other searchers yelled for help. The mans eyes remained closed beneath the thick clotting blood. _


End file.
